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Maxey Hurt, Michkov Scratched, Curtin Fired

🚦 THE Philly Sports Newsletter

AuthorAuthor

Philip Keidel & John Foley
November 08, 2024

© Bill Streicher | 2024 Oct 30

The morning after a gutty Flyers road win heading into a weekend featuring Eagles/Cowboys is supposed to be a good time.

Unfortunately, we learned yesterday that Tyrese Maxey isn’t healthy enough to play and that Matvei Michkov isn’t playing even though he’s perfectly healthy. It’s vexing.

To top it off, the Union fired Jim Curtin, a decision no one seems to understand.

Off we go.

In the email today:

🚑 Struggling Sixers Lose Tyrese Maxey for ‘A Couple of Weeks’

Shams Charania of ESPN reports that the Sixers will be without Tyrese Maxey for weeks as he deals with a right hamstring injury.

Losing Maxey is just the latest in a series of unfortunate Sixers events this season. The team is 1-6, Paul George has played in just two games, and Joel Embiid has yet to make his debut.

On Pattison’s Sixers beat writer Austin Krell tried to be optimistic over on the website:

If we zoom out for a moment, the sting is sharper because of the team's 1-6 start to the season than because of the injury's impact on the outlook over the course of 82 games.

A large part of the argument in favor of having three star-level players is that you can tread water when one goes down. You could point to the team's record to start the season and say that that is nonsense. But, we have to look at this 1-6 start as 1-4 with just Maxey available, 0-2 with Maxey and Paul George available, and 0-0 with those two and Joel Embiid available.

. . .

Embiid and George, together, will be able to hold down the fort.

At the moment, of course, Embiid is serving a three-game suspension for shoving Philadelphia Inquirer writer Marcus Hayes.

Even in his optimism, Austin admits that “the next two games might set basketball back 300 years.”

If things continue as they've trended over this four-game losing streak, and George stays on a minute restriction, it could get way uglier before the clouds clear. First, it's Anthony Davis - who has played like an MVP candidate early in this season - and the ageless LeBron James guiding the Los Angeles Lakers. Then, it's LaMelo Ball - who has been shot out of a cannon over these first few weeks - and Brandon Miller leading the Charlotte Hornets.

The Sixers got smoked by a middling Clippers team with both Maxey and George available. There are two games left on Embiid's suspension. 1-8 is certainly in play when he makes his debut on Tuesday against the New York Knicks.

If and when the Sixers get some stars on the court together, they’ll have some catching up to do.

🏒 Flyers Scratch Out Shootout Win Without Healthy Michkov

The Flyers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in Florida last night. The 2-1 shootout victory pulled the Flyers out of last place in the Eastern Conference.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that rookies Matvei Michkov and Aleksei Kolosov must have had great games for these Flyers to win on the road. Actually, they didn’t play at all.

In Kolosov’s case, he was scratched due to a “lower body injury” he picked up during the morning skate. These things happen. Michkov’s absence, though, was something else entirely.

Yup, Tortorella benched the NHL Rookie of the Month for October — a player fans spent all summer hoping he’d be here at all — a week after Michkov won the award.

Owen Tippett scored the Flyers’ only goal in regulation last night, scoring with less than five minutes to go to tie the game. In the shootout, goaltender Ivan Fedotov saved shots from the Lightning’s Gage Goncalves and Victor Hedman to earn his first NHL victory.

It remains to be seen how Michkov will handle this (hopefully temporary) setback. Tortorella told the media before the game that making Michkov a healthy scratch was intended to “help him” and that the decision was just part of his development.

For that matter, as our colleague Anthony SanFilippo noted, the real shocker here is probably more that Tortorella — notoriously hard on both offensive players and rookies — waited this long to push this button.

It’s a calculated gamble that Tortorella has the liberty to take given the team’s slow start to the season. It’s another rebuilding year for the Flyers. Last night’s result and the Michkov scratch don’t change that.

Still…not everyone was on board with this choice.

Suddenly, tomorrow night’s game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers has become must-see TV. As in, we must see if Michkov is back on the ice.

😪 Union Closes Book on Its Greatest Era by Firing Jim Curtin

Success is accrued in tablespoons and spilled in buckets. The Philadelphia Union reached the step below the mountaintop two years ago. Their loss in MLS Cup 2022 was not Jim Curtin's fault. That they got that far at all was primarily due to Curtin's coaching prowess and capacity to do more with less.

The 2024 Union missed the MLS playoffs, which is really hard to do. Success has a dozen fathers and failure is an orphan, and so this is the result:

Sportswriters use the word "outrage" far too often. Stuff like an outfielder who is pretty good losing his arbitration case is regularly deemed "outrageous." But let's be clear: The Union firing Jim Curtin is the epitome of outrageous.

The Philadelphia Union were only relevant for a handful of years (2019-2023) because Jim Curtin consistently did more with less. Even the 2022 team that lost in MLS Cup punched way above its weight. That team got that far because Curtin was just that good.

We don't make pronouncements like this without backup, so here you are:

Legitimate soccer men took one look at this firing and said, yeah, that makes no sense at all. Because it doesn't.

If Curtin was tasked with leading the rebuild with academy players, he would have done that at a high level. The success of Brenden Aaronson and so many other Union players in other leagues attests to that.

If Curtin was given a healthy budget to sign established talent, he would have brought in quality players and managed them such that the Union would be right back in the hunt.

The one thing we can confidently say is that Curtin will not be unemployed for long. There are at least a dozen MLS clubs who would profit quickly from hiring Curtin.

An inarguable truth in competition is this: "If my opponent makes a move, am I happy or unhappy?"

All of MLS is delighted that the Union parted ways with Jim Curtin, because by doing so the Union made themselves worse.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On November 8, 2000, the Sixers beat the Pistons, 103-94. It was the team’s fifth straight win en route to a 10-0 start to the season. Allen Iverson had 28 points and 8 assists. Theo Ratliff had four blocks.

Jerry Stackhouse scored 36 for Detroit.

© Eileen Blass | 2000 Nov 18

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Results from Wednesday:

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Friday, November 8, 2024

  • Sixers at Lakers, 10:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Saturday, November 9, 2024

  • Flyers at Panthers, 6:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Sunday, November 10, 2024

  • Eagles at Cowboys, 4:25 p.m. (CBS)

  • Sixers vs. Hornets, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you Monday.

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